


When You Find Your Way

by ThisKwamiNeeds_aNap



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Actually it might not be zutara i am an indecisive mess, Alternate Univese, Gen, So they have a long way to go, also katara is going to get so much time to shine, and there’s also going to be a big focus on aang and sokka’s friendship, edit: i decided this is definitely going to be zutara, everyone is dumb at the start of this fic because they need space to grow i promise i do love them, firebender!katara, i promise we will see character growth v soon, i'll add more tags when i write more chapters, mom friend!sokka, we are still basically in the first episode
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:08:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24528142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisKwamiNeeds_aNap/pseuds/ThisKwamiNeeds_aNap
Summary: "I'm the only bender in the Southern Water Tribe." Katara said. "I need a teacher.""I'd love to teach you, but I'm an airbender, not a waterbender. Maybe you could find a waterbending teacher at the North Pole?""I'm not-" Katara took a deep breath, bracing herself for Aang's reaction. "I'm not a waterbender, either. I'm a firebender."
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 69
Kudos: 142





	1. The Boy in The Iceberg Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Update: I’m just going to officially say I’m abandoning this fic. I do have an entire outline but I apparently still don’t have the stamina to write longer fics, (i’m deeply impressed by authors with the skill to write longer stories) and I’m not really vibing with these first few chapters anymore. I’ve also mostly stopped beinh active in the atla fandom at all. I might at some point post something about my ideas for where this fic was heading, if there’s interest in that, because I had some really cool ideas.

It was rare that Katara ever got to sail this far from the southern water tribe. The waves were almost nonexistent; the sky was a featureless arc of light gray. Their tiny fishing boat was surrounded by silence and stillness. 

Inside the boat was an entirely different story.

“Katara, if you don’t stop yapping, you’re going to scare all the fish away.”

“I’m not saying anything!”

“Oh, really? You just said something right now!”

“Only because you- ugh, forget it!”

“See, you said something again. You have to learn to be quiet.”

“Oh, because you’re such an expert at being quiet.”

“I can be quiet!”

“Prove it!”

Sokka huffed in response, but he stopped arguing, and for a few minutes, there was blissful silence. Katara turned so she wouldn’t have to look at him and focused on steadying her breathing. After a few minutes of controlled patience, a tiny flame sparked into existence between her hands. It was barely the size of a candle flame, not nearly big enough to provide any warmth, but it still spread sparkling beams of orange and yellow reflecting across the water’s surface. Unfortunately, Sokka noticed the glow.

“Maybe you shouldn’t play with that.” Sokka tried to sound lighthearted, but the unease was still apparent on his face.

“Maybe you should stop pretending you’re the boss of me.” Katara muttered under her breath. 

“Hey, my job is to keep our village safe. I’m just saying, playing with fire isn’t really the safest hobby.”

Katara finally took her eyes off of the fire for long enough to glare back at her brother. “Wow, you’re right.” Her voice was dripping with enough sarcasm to make the surrounding icebergs seem warm in comparison. “I wouldn’t want to accidentally set the OCEAN on fire. How stupid of me.”

“You know that’s not what I meant-“

“You need to stop worrying so much. There’s nothing flammable around.”

“I’m flammable!”

Katara rolled her eyes but didn’t respond. She stared intently, barely twitching her fingers to see if she could get the tiny flame to move.

Sokka huffed. “I’m sorry for trying to be responsible-“

“Oh, YOU’RE responsible?” Katara spun to face him. The small flame she had been holding flared up for a second before vanishing. “Which one of us has been off playing soldier-“

“It’s not playing, we’re going to need more warriors-“

“And which one of us has been actually taking care of the tribe?” Katara stood up, which caused the tiny boat to rock dangerously. “I am so sick of you acting like I’m useless, while I help with all the medicine and cooking and cleaning and meetings and-“

“Yeah, I know, you do the girl stuff, and it’s very important or whatever. But you can’t even do half of those things anymore, ever since-“

“Shut up! That’s not important! What I’m saying is that you- you- ugh!”

Whatever Sokka was going to say, he realized it was too late, because tongues of fire had already engulfed the fishing boat. Katara stopped yelling and looked down at her hands in shock. 

A growing wall of fire separated her from her brother. Everything was suddenly blurry, whether from smoke or panic she couldn’t tell. A thunderous rumbling echoed in Katara’s ears, and she couldn’t tell how much of it was her own heartbeat.

Suddenly, she was being tackled to the ground and her brain completely gave up on trying to process what her senses were sending in.

When the ringing in her ears faded, she slowly sat up, moving carefully not to slip. Sokka was sitting cross-legged beside her, and they were both on a relatively flat sheet of ice.

“We’re going to die.” Sokka said. “We lost our boat and we’re stranded away from camp and-“

“Shut up,“ Katara said, still working to get her breathing under control. “So…” she said, after a minute of panting, “I think we can agree that both of us made mistakes today.”

“You burnt down our boat.” Sokka said. It wasn’t accusatory, it was just a statement of fact, but somehow that made it even more infuriating.

“Yeah, well, you were being annoying, so I think we can just call it even.”

“Do you ever take anything seriously?”

“Panicking right now isn’t going to help us, Sokka. I’m trying to- what’s that?”

Sokka followed Katara’s gaze to an iceberg nearby. Or, rather, the rubble that was once an iceberg. 

“You started shooting fire and you kind of took down-“

“No, not that. I think there’s a person in there.”

“What? Why would there be-“

“We have to go look. He might need help.”

“Katara, if anyone needs help right now, its-“

But Katara had already jumped from their sheet of ice to a floating piece of former iceberg.

“Katara!” Sokka hissed as he leaped after her. “You can’t… woah.”

Hidden behind the icy rubble was a misty clearing. It looked like the ice caves Katara had loved to explore when she was younger, where layers of snow had gotten so compressed over time that they turned smooth and blue. A figure that looked human was standing motionless in the center of the clearing, emitting a faint glow that made the entire situation seem even more surreal. The figure started to fall, and Katara ran forward to catch him before Sokka could stop her.

Katara couldn’t even tell if the person was alive for a moment. He looked like he was just a little kid, with clothes that were definitely not from the southern water tribe. He’d probably freeze soon if they didn’t get him a jacket and hood. Distantly, she was aware that Sokka was still yelling in the distance, but she was more concerned about helping this child.

“Hi,” she said. “My name is Katara, and this is my brother Sokka. Do you need a fire to get warm? I could-“

“No you can’t!” Sokka yelled.

“Where am I?” the boy asked, looking dazed.

“Don’t tell him-“

“You’re right by the southern water tribe.” Katara chose to tune out Sokka’s complaints.

The boy nodded, and a second later, he hopped up to his feet, looking like he’d just woken up. 

“I love the southern water tribe! Can we go penguin sledding?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow it looks like Katara really needs a teacher. I wonder who they’re going to meet that would be able to teach Katara firebending...
> 
> Please leave a kudos and a comment if you enjoyed!


	2. The Boy in The Iceberg Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katara and Aang learn a little more about each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to formally apologize to Aang. I do love him but this exchange had to happen sooner or later, so... Yeah I'm still sorry Aang. Please forgive me  
> 

Sokka was skeptical of the stranger and the “flying” bison, but the alternative was freezing to death in the middle of the ocean. In comparison, accepting a ride on a very slobbery shedding creature didn’t seem so bad.

“So,” Katara tapped her fingers against her necklace. “You’re an airbender?”

“Yep!” Aang was also fidgeting, casting alternating glances between the ocean surrounding them, the bison’s face below him, and Katara behind him. Sokka was almost worried that Aang would make himself dizzy and fall overboard.

Katara was beaming, though. "Maybe you can help me! I'm the only bender in the Southern Water Tribe. And I really I need a teacher." She blushed, probably remembering one of the countless times she had melted the ice below her feet or singed someone’s eyebrows.

“Hmm” Aang snapped his fingers as he thought of a reply. Did this boy ever sit still?

“Why me?” he finally asked. "I'd love to teach you, but I'm an airbender, not a waterbender. Maybe you could find a waterbending teacher at the North Pole?"

"I'm not-" Katara took a deep breath, bracing herself for Aang's reaction. Sokka prepared himself to come to her defense if Aang reacted badly. "I'm not a waterbender, either.” Katara stared deliberately at the gentle waves. “I'm a firebender." Her voice got a lot quieter on the last word, but if Aang noticed, he didn’t say anything.

In fact, Aang didn’t even bat an eyelash.

“Oh, well, I’m not a firebender either.” He said cheerfully. “I have a lot of firebender friends though, so maybe-“

“You have WHAT?”

Aang did a double take at Sokka’s hostility.

“I have friends who are firebenders? I’ve traveled to the fire nation tons of times and- Woah, what did I say?“

“Sokka! Let him talk!” At his sister’s urging, Sokka begrudgingly returned his boomerang to his belt. 

Aang bit his lip nervously. “Do you guys have something against firebenders or something?”

Sokka let out a humorless laugh. “’Do we have something against the fire nation?’ You’re joking, right?”

“I thought you were a firebender?”

“I’m NOT a friend of the fire nation.” Katara said the word "friend" like it was poison. “Just because I can bend fire doesn’t mean I’m anything like- them.” The word “them” might as well have been a curse word, the way Katara used it.

“I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just really confused. I thought the southern water tribe was a close ally with the fire nation. Did something happen?”

Sokka made a choking noise. “You thought WHAT? Have you been living under a rock for the last hundred years?”

“I don’t know? Maybe?” Aang was starting to look sweaty, which was never a good thing when it was so far below freezing.

Katara refused to meet Aang’s eyes, but opened her mouth like she was going to talk few times before sighing loudly. “Ok, so, I don’t know how to tell you this, if you really don’t know, but, um…”

She trailed off with a shuddering breath, and Sokka was almost afraid she was going to start crying, until he remembered that this was Katara.

After the brief hesitation, Katara straightened her shoulders and looked straight into Aang’s eyes. “I have no idea where you heard that, but the fire nation will never be our ally. They’ve been trying to break us since the war started. They’ve destroyed our houses and taken all of our waterbenders, they took my mother,” Katara’s gaze grew even more scarily intense. “So yeah, I have a lot of things against the fire nation. And I will NEVER be like them.”

Aang looked a bit terrified, which was the natural reaction to Katara’s glares. 

“I had no idea.” To Aang’s credit, it sounded genuine. “You said there was a war? What? I’m-“ his voice cracked. “How long?”

“The war.” Sokka said, as if that answered the question. “The one that’s been going on for like a hundred years.”

“Oh.” Aang said, still looking just as lost. “So, Katara, you said you’re a firebender?”

“Yeah,” Katara said. “I don’t really know why. I’ve lived here all my life, and neither of my parents were even benders, but I’ve been able to control fire since I was a little girl. Well, maybe not ‘control,’ but… you know what I mean.”

Aang hummed in understanding.

“I always thought I’d be a waterbender. When I was little, it’s dumb, but, I thought…”

“Katara, we still don’t even know if we can trust this guy. You don’t need to give him your life story.”

Katara had been hesitantly speaking before, but Sokka’s words seemed to fuel her with spite, and she scooted forward to be closer to Aang. 

“When I was really young, I used to think I was the avatar," she confessed, laughing. “I thought, maybe the avatar wasn’t born into the air nomads and the universe had finally realized it and moved on with the cycle after a hundred years of nothing. Sokka never believed that, he said that I was crazy, and that the avatar cycle was broken when the air nomads civilization was destroyed.”

“Katara, I’m sure Aang doesn’t want to hear one of your speeches about the avatar.”

Katara stuck out her tongue before continuing. “But I’ve always had hope that the avatar will return. I don’t think it’s me. I mean, it could be, but I’ve spent so long trying to waterbend without any success, I don’t think I have that gift. But I know the avatar’s out there somewhere. Wait! You’re an air nomad, right? Do you know anything about what happened to the avatar?” Katara turned back towards Aang, and froze when she saw his expression. “Are you okay?”

Aang looked like he was about to either throw up or pass out. His fidgeting had completely stopped at some point during Katara’s rambling, but he was breathing like he’d just finished a race. “Um, I might know what happened to the avatar. I… I need a minute.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for giving answers that only raise more questions (just kidding I'm not sorry, you'll get real answers eventually)
> 
> Also, this was the setup chapter part 2. The actual plot of this, which will start to diverge a lot further from canon, SHOULD (fingers crossed) start in the next chapter. On a *completely* unrelated note, the next chapter is going to introduce you all to Zuko in this au


	3. The Avatar Returns Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko is a little confused but, he's doing his best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally time for you all to meet Zuko in this AU! 
> 
> This chapter ends kind of abruptly because it is also a two parter. I've already written chapter 4 but it still needs to be edited. I'm planning on posting it tomorrow.
> 
> ALSO just a heads up: Zuko, the narrator, has pretty much no idea what's going on. if you have knowledge of the actual show, you can probably infer a few things, but you're supposed to be a little confused at times

Zuko was starting to get light headed from staring at the horizon, not that he would let it stop him. The ice was so bright, and so reflective, that he was half sure he would start hallucinating if the solid-white view didn’t change soon. Still, any time he spent resting his eyes came with a chance of missing the avatar entirely, and the risk wasn’t worth it. Not when he was finally so close.

“Prince Zuko”

“I know what I saw!” He didn’t have to turn around to know that his uncle was standing right behind him, wearing that expression of pity. As if he needed that. He was the future ruler of the fire nation. If anyone needed pity, it was the avatar, whenever Zuko found him. Which would be soon. He could feel it.

“We don’t know what it was. Even if that was related to the avatar, you should still take a break. You want to be well-rested if you do meet him. I can keep watch for a while.”

Zuko bristled. “It’s not a case of ‘if.’ I’m going to find him. I’m so close, I know it. It’s not my fault you never believe in me.”

“I do believe in you, but that's all the more reason that you should take a break.” His uncle said.

“So you can ignore the watch to sip your tea and let him slip away?” 

There was no reply, so Zuko was forced to break the silence himself.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell, uncle, I’m just-” his voice cracked, which he hated more than anything, and he had to remind himself that yelling at his uncle would only make it worse. “I’m not going to slow down when I’m this close.”

There was a long pause, long enough that Zuko almost turned back to check whether his uncle was still there.

“Okay, if that’s what you want to do. Just, remember that it might not be him, and it’s okay if you don’t find him right now. You're worth more than this one quest.”

"My honor..." Zuko trailed off. He wasn't even sure what he had been planning on saying. If he didn't find the avatar, it wouldn’t be okay, but that was an argument that had come up enough times that Zuko knew that it was pointless to argue. 

He kept his eyes peeled, staring at the horizon, and-

“What’s that?”

In the distance, a storm had suddenly manifested into existence. A violent wind that glowed with strange energy pulsed through the air, so strongly that Zuko could feel gusts of air from the deck of his ship.

“Head toward that!” Zuko yelled, pointing and hoping that the crew got his message. Soon enough, the boat had turned around and was headed toward the strange storm. Zuko kept his eyes fixed firmly on the sky, refusing to let his chance slip away. For the hundredth time in the past hour, he double-checked that he had both of his swords at the ready. There would undoubtedly be a fight, but Zuko knew that he could win. He had trained hard enough. All his exhaustion would finally pay off.

“Why are we stopping?” he snapped, as the boat came to a halt. 

“Your highness,” a crew member said, “the boat can’t make it any farther. There’s too much ice in the way.” 

Zuko took all of one second to process the statement before he was climbing down a ladder and onto a sheet of ice below.

“Zuko, you shouldn’t-“

Zuko was too busy sprinting toward the explosion to hear the rest of his uncle’s sentence.

The storm began to fade away, prompting Zuko to run even faster. He knew he wouldn’t fall into the icy water because he COULDN’T, not when he was so close. 

It had vanished completely by the time Zuko arrived, but he trusted his memory that this was where it was coming from. He found himself face to face with three… children? Teenagers? Sitting in the clearing. A teenage girl dressed in water tribe clothing was hugging a boy who was sitting on her lap and crying, while another boy in water tribe clothes sat near her, awkwardly.

Zuko took a moment to get his bearings. This couldn’t be it. He knew the avatar was close. He had to be. He drew his swords and cleared his throat to get their attention

He was sure he'd had a speech prepared. He imagined moments like this every other waking second. Why couldn't he think of anything to say? The silence felt physically opressing, he needed to say something.

"I am Prince Zuko of the fire nation. Where is the avatar?" 

The girl looked up when she heard Zuko, and stiffened immediately. She stood up, practically throwing the crying child at the water tribe boy, picking up some kind of water tribe weapon out of his hand as she did so.

“Just take Aang, I’ve got this,” she said in response to the boy's protest. Then, she turned to face Zuko, looking remarkably sure of herself for someone who was locking their knees instead of getting into anything resembling a proper fighting stance.

“Where is the avatar?” Zuko growled again, trying to look as intimidating as possible. The girl, who was turning out to be a lot stupider than she looked, decided to throw the staff at Zuko instead of responding. He dodged it easily, not breaking eye contact, and raised his swords into a defensive position. “Tell me where the avatar is, and no one has to get hurt.”

The boy, who was apparently named Aang, let out another sob and curled up into the water tribe boy’s lap. The older boy didn’t even try to hide his panic as he hesitantly patted Aang's head.

“Hey, Katara, quick question, what am I supposed to do-”

“Just help him!”

“I don’t know how to handle emotions!”

“Sokka I am literally fighting for my life, you can figure something out!”

"I don't want him to-"

The girl, Katara, glared at Sokka and he shut up.

And then, the idiotically stubborn girl summoned a ball of flame, and tried to throw it at Zuko. It sputtered out before it even left her hands.

“Why are you holding your breath?” Zuko asked, unable to stop himself.

“What?”

“You can’t hold your breath while you firebend, you idiot, that’s never going to- I mean... nothing, I didn’t say anything.” His stupid uncle was definitely rubbing off on him. “Just ignore me. Please keep being terrible at firebending so I can win.” 

He managed to stop himself from noticeably wincing, but couldn’t stop mentally screaming at his own awkwardness. Why couldn't he speak today?

And then she tried to summon fire again, and at least she was breathing this time, but her hands were way too close to her face and- he found himself involuntarily tackling her to the ground, shoving her hands into the snow before she could accidentally kill herself.

“Are you stupid? Are you actually stupid?”

“Maybe,” she said, yanking her arm away from him, and she was smirking, and her tone was still somehow contentious as if she was winning in her mind, and Zuko was going to scream.

“Just tell me where the avatar is!” he yelled, and then she was trying to summon fire AGAIN, and-

“Pardon me, young lady, what are you doing?”

Zuko had never been happier to be followed by his uncle in his entire life. He thought he could handle a fight, but this girl was a disgrace to firebending, and he knew that his uncle would tell her so, and then he could actually interrogate her about the avatar's location without wanting to pull his hair out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katara, throwing Aang into Sokka’s arms: congrats, you’re going to be the mom friend in this timeline
> 
> Zuko's backstory is slightly different in this than in canon, there's a little bit of foreshadowing about that but all the details will come later
> 
> leave a comment if you enjoyed this chapter! I thrive on attention and your comments fuel me to write new chapters faster!


	4. The Avatar Returns Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Katara makes some choices that are either very brave or very stupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't worry you guys, Zuko is just as dumb as Katara is and I love him for it

All things considered, Katara figured she was doing pretty well. 

She had found the avatar, finally. Part of her couldn’t help but feel giddy about that. Then, the avatar had learned that he’d been asleep for a hundred years and all his friends had been brutally murdered, which kind of put a damper on the moment. 

But Katara had done an okay job of handling it. Aang had only been in that scary-glowing-power trance for a few minutes before she’d managed to calm him down. No real damage had been done. They’d managed to actually talk about it, and now they had an actual plan. And yeah, “go to the North Pole to learn waterbending” was less of a plan and more a vague dream, but at least it was a direction. And now they were being faced with fire nation soldiers, but Katara wasn’t fazed. She was a firebender herself, there was no reason to panic.

Ok, so, maybe Katara was acting a little bit reckless. And yeah, she had somehow managed to simultaneously get on the bad side of her brother and the AVATAR. And, even if she wouldn’t ever admit it, she was painfully outmatched. But, on the bright side, the prince of the fire nation was also mad, so clearly she was doing something right.

And then, of course, another man in firebending gear appeared out of the corner of her vision. She braced for an attack, trying as hard as she could to summon fire, but instead of attacking, he seemed to be interrogating her, as well. She didn’t process his words, but she absolutely did process Prince Zuko’s reply, where he started listing off all of the reasons that Katara sucked at firebending.

“Shut up!” She shouted without looking back. She did her best to throw a fireball in Zuko’s general direction, but the older man put it out with a wave of his hand.

“Prince Zuko, don’t be rude.”

“I’M rude? This peasant-”

“I have a name!”

Zuko rolled his eyes and moved to continue ranting, but his uncle shot him a stern glare and coughed. Zuko took a pained breath.

“What is it, then?” he asked, and it took her a second to realize that the question was aimed at her.

“What is what? Oh, my name. It’s-” she stopped when she realized that she was tripping over her words. “My name is Katara. And, for the record, I’m not a peasant. I’m the daughter of the chief.”

“It is an honor to meet you, Princess Katara. You can just call me Iroh.”

Katara wanted to argue, but the Iroh seemed to be completely genuine. He gave a meaningful look to his nephew, who appeared to be more visibly pained by the minute. 

“I am not-” The prince glared at his uncle, and the two of them had an entire nonverbal argument. FInally, Zuko sighed in defeat. “It is,” he refused to look in Katara’s eyes, “an honor to meet you, Princess Katara.” He reluctantly bowed, and his uncle smiled. Zuko rolled his eyes, but his uncle either didn’t see it, or chose to ignore it.

“So, Your Highness, my nephew tells me you can firebend?”

Katara’s instinct’s screamed that this was a trap. Telling them anything about her powers would be incredibly stupid. There was no way she’d give them any information that would be useful for fighting against her. Unfortunately, before she could stubbornly refuse to respond, Zuko interrupted her.

"That’s the thing, she can’t firebend. She can move fire, or whatever, but she can’t even- she has no idea what she’s doing. She has no control. She isn’t even breathing right!”

Katara was already hurling a ball of fire in his direction before her brain could process his words. He didn’t even need to firebend to defend himself, he just ducked slightly out of the way, but it made him stop ranting, at least.

“Clearly she’s better at firebending than you think.” Iroh said, and Katara felt a rush of pride before remembering that the compliment was coming from a member of the fire nation.

Iroh turned to Katara. “Have you had any formal training in firebending?”

“Obviously she hasn’t!” Zuko snapped.

Katara wasn’t going to respond, but Zuko was once again glaring at her like she was an idiot, and she couldn’t stop the words from escaping her mouth. “Wow, I’m so sorry that I care more about helping my village survive than learning how to murder people and commit arson. Does that hurt your feelings?” She tried to infuse the words with icy anger, but Zuko just scoffed in response, and Iroh’s calm smile didn’t waver.

“You’re incredibly talented for someone who is self taught”

Katara smiled proudly for half a second before catching herself and scowling again. This conversation was going on for too long. Maybe it was a distraction? Aang’s sniffling had gone down a lot, and Sokka was starting to look restless.

“Enough!” Zuko snapped. “I know that you know where the avatar is. And you are Going To Tell Me.”

“No, actually I don’t think I will.” Katara said

“I know there’s a village nearby. Is the avatar hiding there? If he just turns himself in, no one has to get hurt.”

Katara caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, and Sokka abruptly stopped hugging Aang and tackled him to the ground, clamping a hand over his mouth in the process.

“Sorry!” Sokka said, with an obviously fake smile “but we don’t know where the avatar is.”

Aang was struggling to get free, and Sokka was looking pleadingly at Katara. She knew her brother well enough to know that he’d much rather turn in the avatar than let anything happen to their home. 

“You heard them, Prince Zuko, they don’t know where the avatar is either.”

Zuko exhaled unhappily. “They literally could not be any more suspicious”

“My brother is just super weird.” Katara said, praying that she could somehow convince him to leave before she had to make a choice between her hope for the world and her home’s safety. “he makes muscles at himself every time he sees his reflection. Don’t worry about him.”

“I know where the avatar is,” Aang said, finally getting free, and Katara’s adrenaline levels spiked. He was the avatar, shouldn’t he have infinite wisdom or something? He shouldn’t be taking stupid risks, that was her thing.

“Get back here, Aang,” Sokka said, trying to tackle him again. Aang managed to slip out of reach, settling at the top of a nearby iceberg.

Aang and Katara got into a staring contest, and she tried to send a mental message to him to shut his idiot mouth before he got himself killed. Aang’s returning glare probably would’ve been more effective if his face wasn’t still tear-streaked. Finally Aang turned to look at Zuko.

“He was here, I don’t know where he is right now, but he’s headed to the North Pole,” Aang said quietly. Katara let out a frustrated sigh, which in hindsight probably only confirmed that Aang was telling the truth.

“We need to go North as soon as possible,”

“Or you could give the avatar like, a couple days head start, just to be fair,” Sokka said. Zuko, who was already stomping away, chose to ignore him.

“Prince Zuko.” Iroh said quietly

“What?” Zuko shouted, turning back around. “I’m so close to finally finding the avatar. I finally have confirmation that he’s alive. I need to go NOW before I lose my chance to find him.”

“Apologize to this young lady first.”

Zuko stared at his uncle in disbelief. “I’m not going to-” he sighed in exasperation. “You know what? Fine. I’m sorry for being honest, and letting you know that you’re an insult to the art of firebending, and I’m sorry that you’re too weak to handle the truth.”

“What is your problem?” Katara asked.

“Prince Zuko, you know that isn’t true. I’m sure that she’d be amazing with a formal teacher.”

“Well, it’s not my fault she doesn’t have one!” Zuko yelled. “Now can we PLEASE just leave already?”

“Are you sure that it’s not your fault?” Iroh asked.

“What?”

“If it bothers you so much that she’s untrained, you could-”

“It doesn’t bother me!”

Iroh turned away from his nephew to face Katara. “Excuse me, Princess Katara. Would you be interested in receiving formal training in firebending? My nephew is very talented, and I’m sure he could be an amazing teacher. We have extra rooms on our ship, and you have my word that you’ll be safe.”

“No.” Zuko said. “No way. I am not- I refuse.”

Katara shouldn’t have even considered it. She didn’t want to be anywhere near fire nation soldiers. She didn’t even want to learn firebending, not in the violent way that the fire nation used it. Except… Zuko was clearly trying to hunt down the avatar. If she went North with Aang, she was going to have to fight him at some point. And this didn’t seem like a trap, because Zuko hated it too. If she had any opportunity to get onto a fire nation battleship, any chance to be able to sabotage it… morally, she had to take it, right?

She and Sokka had already decided to go to the North Pole with Aang. Zuko’s ship was going to the same place. There was no way she’d get too far separated. And if Zuko actually could teach her, and she DID learn to defend herself against firebending attacks, then she should be able to escape if she needed to. Plus, Aang was going to need a firebending teacher, eventually, and she’d much rather be able to teach him herself than let anyone from the fire nation near him. Even now, she was itching to get Aang as far away from Zuko as possible.

Zuko was still protesting, which made her even more sure that this was the right choice. What better way to protect her home, and the entire world, then by taking the chance to attack them from the inside? 

“Ok.” she said.

“What?” Zuko and Sokka asked at the same time.

“I’ll go with you to the North Pole.” she said. “You can teach me on the way, and then drop me off there.”

“I just said that I wouldn’t-”

“Great!” Iroh interrupted. 

Sokka was staring at Katara like she was crazy, which, to be fair, she probably was.

“Are you sure- you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Sokka said.

“I do want to, unfortunately,” Katara said. She wished she could explain her reasoning to him, but she couldn’t exactly explain her plans for sabotage with Zuko standing right there.

“Then I’m coming with you.” Sokka said. “There’s no way I’m leaving you-”

“I need you to watch Aang.” Katara said. “I promise I’ll be okay.”

Sokka was silent for a long moment. “For the record, I hate literally everything about this.” He finally said.

“That’s one thing we have in common.” Zuko said.

“Well, if everyone hates it equally, it’s probably the best agreement we’ll come up with.” Katara said.

“Then, I’ll catch up with you later, I guess?” Sokka said, and his voice cracked just a little bit, and Katara’s heart hurt. Sokka trusted her. She needed to stay alive for him.

The next few minutes passed by in a blur of anxiety as Katara wondered if she was doing the right thing. Zuko was grudgingly agreeing to the plan, if only to hurry his uncle along so they could leave, and then Iroh and Sokka were talking about specifics of the arrangement that Katara was too tense to comprehend, and then Aang was saying goodbye and good luck to her, and then her brother was squeezing her in a hug and telling her to stay safe, and suddenly she was on board a boat made of metal

“Stop looking at me like that,” Zuko huffed.

“Like what?:

“Like you expect me to stab you in the back the second that we leave. It’s insulting. If i wanted you dead i could have literally just done nothing, and you would’ve accidentally set yourself on fire.”

He was right, but that didn’t make Katara feel any more comfortable.

“So,” she turned to Zuko, “what-“

“Ground rules.” he said, cutting her off. “We’re not friends, we’re never going to be friends. You’re just a passenger on this ship, and you’re not going to interrupt me. I’ll teach you firebending, but i don’t have to do ANYTHING else. My main quest is hunting down the avatar, and you're NOT going to distract me from that.”

“Wh-

“It’s not lesson time, I don’t have to talk to you.” He snapped. 

“Fine.” She said, and just like that, her stupid smug expression was back. “Then you don’t get to talk to ME outside of lesson time either.”

“Fine by me.” Zuko said.

“What’s that? Did someone say something?” Katara said. To her satisfiction, Zuko huffed. 

It was going to be a long trip to the North Pole, but Katara was going to do her best to have fun with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now both katara and zuko are keeping multiple major secrets from each other lol (u don’t get to know what secrets zuko is keeping for a little bit so have fun trying to guess)
> 
> People are going to start using the braincell very soon but right now they’re all at PEAK Dumb Baby
> 
> The next chapter is going to be from Sokka's point of view :D
> 
> one comment = one prayer for Uncle Iroh's sanity


End file.
